Nicole Callihan
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From Yesteryear
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(4/9)
Under the rose-
less rose bush, I mute
myself, better not
to hear the birds,
the baying of the pack
of dogs uphill.
A half dozen stone
frogs, I’m not sure
how I got here.
Middle-aged
disconcertion. Patience
turned inside out,
an iron-on eagle.
What I forgot:
a sweater. What I
forgot: my father.
What I forgot:
the easy way
of operating
in a body,
how to reach
without thinking
reach, succumb
without saying,
succumb, succumb.
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Nicole Callihan’s books include SuperLoop (2014) and the chapbooks The Deeply Flawed Human (2016), Downtown (2017), The Couples (a novella, 2019), and ELSEWHERE ( w/ Zoë Ryder White, 2020). Her work has appeared in Tin House, Sixth Finch, PEN--America, The American Poetry Review and as a Poem-a-Day selection from the Academy of American Poets. She currently serves as Artist-in-Residence for Asterix Journal. Find out more at nicolecallihan.com.